A Pact with Pat

I've probably written about this before. When I was a little girl, my dad ran against the sitting U.S. Senator, Willis Robertson, and defeated him in the Democratic Primary in Virginia. Within a few years, Sen. Robertson's son, Pat, got his TV start in my hometown, and my grandmother (not my father's mother) became a financial supporter of his ministry.

Needless to say, this was aggravating that was for my parents, especially as my grandmother grew close enough to the Robertsons that Dede (Mrs. Pat) embroidered a set of curtains for her.

When my grandmother had a series of small strokes in her late 70s, the Robertsons dropped her. After all those years of taking her money, and inviting her to their house, and giving her little gifts, they dropped her. And it hurt her feelings.

But maybe she deserved what she got. After all, she made a pact with Pat Robertson. And he is ALL about people reaping what they sow.

Because he has sown hatred and prejudice, I deplore Pat Robertson's remarks about Haiti made earlier today. As a Christian, I disavow them. He makes Christians look not just mean and bad, but superstitious and idiotic. That he draws people to him through a message of being superior to and separate from other people who will clearly go to hell suggests he has made his own pact in the interest of his own power and security.

Here's what I believe. We live complicated lives on a complicated planet and the wonder is when we don't get sick and our houses don't fall down. When people are poor and in need and then further disaster befalls them, the Divine Source of All That Is does not reject them but suffers with them. And I cannot believe the God I love brings such events to bear.

I do not believe in the God Pat Robertson claims.

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Published by Martha Spong

Martha Spong is a United Church of Christ pastor, a clergy coach, editor of The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, and coauthor of Denial is My Spiritual Practice (and Other Failures of Faith) with Rachel Hackenberg.
View all posts by Martha Spong

What a telling story about your grandmother. It really speaks to the character of the man and his ministry.
Great post, I couldn’t agree more. Thanks for standing up and denouncing this so-called “Christian” leader. I wish more people would do this.

Robertson is the type of person Gandhi was talking about when he said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
I could not agree more with your final sentence.

When I heard his comments this morning, I wish I could say I was shocked. But I considered the source. The more times someone has to interject, “true story!” the less likely the story is to actually be true.
Instead, this morning I’m focusing on a positive Haitian story. My brother’s college buddy’s wife is from Haiti. her father started an orphanage there in the early 80s. her family continues to run it. In 2003, they opened a school. The earthquake flattened the school. They’re praying that since the quake it after school hours, it was empty, but many kids play in and near the school after class. What strikes me most is that this woman – not yet 40 – is battling very aggressive cancer (pancreatic, I believe), has already outlived her initial diagnosis, and says she’s planning to visit the school this spring.
Does that sound like a person who made a deal with the devil?

You guys didn’t listen to all of the video, didn’t you? If you had looked further, he had compassion for those people, he was optimistic that something good would come of this. So remember, CNN, MSNBC, and all the Liberal news stations are full of shit, Fox News shows further details.